High performance: The Y720 gaming laptop offers top graphics and CPU performance it promises with its NVidia GeForce 1060GTX and PCle SSD storage.

CONS

Poor aesthetic: While ugly is a strong word, the aesthetics of this laptop score below average. The black and red tones are overdone.

Junk bloatware: You will probably not mind the preinstalled window 10 Edition and other system diagnostic apps. However, Candy Crush Soda Saga, War of Lords, March of Empires and Minecraft are some of the games you do not want in what ought to be a new gaming laptop.

VERDICT

The Lenovo Legion Y720 is a real gaming laptop designed with the gamer in mind. If red and black colors do not disturb your peace, then you are good to go. Again, most of the games only perform better at High or Very High settings. The Ultra High option is good for low-performance intensive games. It is no doubt that Lenovo could have done better than 128GB SSD memory and a 5400rpm HDD on this laptop. Such stinginess will always cost them a star or at least half of it in the ratings.

Lenovo has added a new high-performance laptop to its list of gaming machines, the Lenovo Legion Y720 laptop. It is probably a portable version of the Legion Y720 Cube gaming PC. Both two are potent machines in their niches. The laptop is a little pricier than the PC. This review looks into the features of this machine pointing what gamers will enjoy and what may annoy.

Design

If there is one thing you will not forget about the Y720, it is its black and red colors. This is not the type of laptop you would want to carry into a conference room. The Legion is purely for the gaming room. A thick bezel surrounds the 15.6-inch display, but it is not overdone.

The other things you will notice under the lid are the keyboard, touchpads, soft-touch deck and number pad. Everything here has a red backlight.

Keyboard

Lenovo Legion Y720 Laptop Keyboard

Typists and gamers alike will love the Y720’s chicklet keyboard adorned in black and red. The keys are large and have a sufficient travel distance. The only issues you can pick with the keyboard is the narrow left shift and number keys. Again, the page up and down keys only works with an Fn combination.

The keyboard is very quiet and is backlit, which make it great for late night gaming. The backlight is a feature that all gaming laptops worth the money should have.

Touchpad

The Lenovo Y720 gaming machine comes with an excellent touchpad that is responsive and quiet. It is a happy upgrade from the weird-looking trapezoidal touchpad design in the Legion Y520. The keypad integrated on the pad diving it a classic smooth continuous look.

Peripherals

It has Ethernet jack, USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack and a lock slot on the left side. The right side of the laptop hosts a pair of USB 3.0, a Thunderbolt 3 port, Mini Display Port and an HDMI output. Lenovo also throws in a port for VR connection. What you will obviously miss with on this high-end machine is the SD slot.

Battery life

The Legion has an impressive battery life of 6 hours 27 minutes. It beats the category’s average of 4 hours 27 minutes and most of its competitors.

Audio quality

The sound quality of the Legion is another reason why it is worth a gamer’s investment. It comes with a bottom, and shoulder-facing speakers that provide high quality surround sound rendition in gaming as well as multimedia applications. It has a Dolby Atmos sound software that enhances the sound produced and has presets which you can use to adjust your sound requirement.

Display

The Legion Y720 gaming laptop has a 15.6-inch, IPS panel display with a resolution of 1080p. In-Plane switching screens are preferred for their wide viewing angles of up to 178 degrees. One issue with IPS screens is the low contrast, and this limitation shows its ugly face on the Legion’s low-resolution display.

The screen also has low color reproduction, covering only 73 present the color gamut. This is significantly lower than the group’s average of 95 percent.

Graphics

NVidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 runs the Legion’s graphics. It gives the Legion enough power to play games that require high settings and VR devices. However, its performance varies from game to game. You will experience treeing with games such mass Effect Andromeda if you play in the Ultra settings. Using the High and Very High settings solves the stuttering and tearing issues.

One feature that makes the Legion a darling for games is its Built-in Xbox wireless adapter. You can use your Xbox One controller without Bluetooth or connecting wires. If you have the type of controller that has neither Bluetooth nor Wi-Fi capability, then you can still pair it as, “Other” device.

The Legion is VR ready, scoring 6.7 on the SteamVR performance Test. It is above the average of 5.7.

Performance

Lenovo Y720 comes with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ with a clock speed of 2.8GHz. This is a high-performance processor ideal for the workload hard-core gamers are bound to expose the machine to. Its memory is an 8GB RAM and 128GBPCle SSD storage. Though the size of the SSD is smaller than most of the machines in this category, it is still the fastest in the market. The Legion also comes with a 1TB 5400rpm HDD for storing games and multimedia.